National Week of Deaf People (NWDP) is a weeklong celebration of Deaf people and the Australian Deaf community.

It is an opportunity for Deaf people to:

Celebrate Deaf community, language, culture and history

Make the public aware of their local, state and national Deaf communities

Recognise their achievements

It is also an opportunity for organisations involved with the Deaf Community to:

Showcase their services and/or products

Build/maintain relationships with Deaf people

Be recognised for giving Deaf people a fair go

This year, NWDP will be held from 19-25 October 2013

National Day of Deaf People (NDDP) will be on Sunday 20 October 2013.

The theme for this year is the same theme as the World Federation of the Deaf International Week of Deaf People for 2013:

“Equality for Deaf People”.

Be creative and start thinking about how you can celebrate Deaf culture!

The types of things you could organise for NWDP are:

Deaf Festival Day/Expo

Information pamphlets/posters

Workshops/forums

Deaf Comedy/Quiz/Theatre/Debate

Film nights

Open days

You will need to register your event with Deaf Australia to make sure it is a part of the official NWDP program. Registration also means your event will be listed on Deaf Australia’s website and will be promoted along with all the other official NWDP events, so people know what is happening all over Australia during that week.

To register, read the Terms of Reference on the Deaf Australia website, then fill out the registration form and send it with your flyer and any other promotional materials to your Deaf Australia state branch for them to collate and send to head office. ACT, NT and Tasmania can send their registrations direct to Deaf Australia.

You must register with your state branch by Friday 13 September 2013 in order for everything to arrive at Deaf Australia on time.

When promoting your event, there is some information you must include:

Title of event

Date/time

Venue

Organisation name

Contact person

Contact details (email, phone TTY, fax etc)

RSVP details (if needed)

Official NWDP logo

Remember you must include the Deaf Australia NWDP logo on all promotional materials, such as flyers, posters and DVDs etc. It is very important to use the logo so that that everyone will know your event is part of the official NWDP program.

If you are promoting your event verbally or using Auslan (eg on radio or TV), you need to be clear that NWDP is Deaf Australia’s national week for celebrating Deaf culture. For example, you could say: “As part of Deaf Australia’s NWDP, I have great pleasure in running this event…”.

Please download the registration information and start thinking about how you can get creative about celebrating Deaf people and culture during National Week of Deaf People!

Deaf Australia Outlook Blog contains opinions from many contributors. This does not mean these opinions are always supported by Deaf Australia Inc.

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